On Grittiness

Earlier this week, my boyfriend suggested an article for me to read (you can read it here); it was by an author that neither of us had read, but my boyfriend is intending to.  The article deals with grittiness in fantasy, and, from what I read, I quite like his point - that getting into the gross, honest, painful details of the story is one of the best ways to make the tale compelling.  I do like, however, that he notes that including gory details of death scenes isn't always necessary, but those scenes should be included if that is what drives the story - the fights, the deaths, the moral ambiguity, the pain of doing unpleasant things.

I think that America in general, especially in politics, is starting to get rather polarized - black and white, good and bad, they're-not-my-party-so-they're-an-unenlightened-moron kind of deal.  I'd like to use more grittiness, but, to be quite frank, none of my writing demands gory death scenes.

What all stories demand, though, is honesty.  Telling things like they are.  Though there is some sort of poetic way to imply some things without saying, "That night, these two characters had passionate sex, and it was great," I do think that you should only use implications if the words that would have been said in the scene don't directly forward the story - if it isn't critical that someone's self-esteem is built or broken in bed, then the scene should simply be, "THEN THEY HAD SEX," and then cut to the next morning.

I believe honesty is necessary in fiction, but sometimes honesty and straightforwardness can be simply boiled down to someone saying that the sex was great last night.

On things in a Series

Last week, my J-term one-act was read in my First Year Course (the course has to do with theater).  Having something I put effort into be read in normal circumstances is rather unnerving; I don't know whether I wanted to be excited or terrified about having people read this draft.  I'd actually put effort into it!  It had been revised more than once!  I didn't think it was atrocious, but it wasn't exactly the next Great American One-Act.
Anyway, the point of this is that one of the critiques I got from my theatre professor is that it felt like it could be a part of a series - that there were other things later on that could be learned.  While I agree with him on that point, I have no idea how I'm going to do that, or whether I should, and in what format I should do it in (stage play, screenplay, one-act, novel...).

Anyway, the point, I feel, of things in a series is that there has to be some overarching plot, unless they're the shows like 30 Rock or Big Bang Theory where the alternate title could just be The Misadventures of Sheldon and Liz Lemon.  If this thing continued into a series, it would have to be the sort of series that has continuity and an overarching sort of idea.  The thing is, though, I don't know if I have enough ideas for that, and every show - especially TV series - peters out sometime.  Take Glee, for example.  I mean, I haven't watched in a while, so I can't be sure, but it seems to have lost a lot of the long-term goals that it had at the start of the first season.  They haven't had any multi-part episodes that I recall since the first time they went to Regionals; even outside of the two-part Regionals bit, there were still allusions to the fact that it was looming on the horizon.  Late into the third season, though, it became more about the singing and dancing and the theme episodes than the overarching plot, though with some relationship drama.

At any rate, things in a series need to be sustainable.  You could write like Jon Flanagan (author of the Ranger's Apprentice series of ten books) and have plots span several books with continuity still between them - you can lump the first four books together, then books five through seven, then books eight through ten (I'm pretty sure my numbers are wrong on that, since I don't have my copies at school, but you get the general idea).

I don't know whether or not I'll write a series based on this one-act.  If I do, it won't be for a few months - I have novels to finish writing.

Anyway, what do you, fair readers, think of this?

Syllabi and suitcases

Well, I got back to school with little drama (the only drama was that my suitcase handle broke in the train station at home, and... well, I managed).  The last few days, however, are the usual amount of back-to-school stress - syllabi are handed out, and students begin freaking out about how much they have to do before realizing that, when spread out over every afternoon in the semester, what they have to do really isn't that much.
But one thing is.
Choir.

See, I LOVE choir.  I really do.  I've been doing choir for eight and a half years.  I was in tears last night over it, because I might have to bid it farewell, at least for the semester.
The last concert is after finals are over - it's for baccalaureate (according to my computer's dictionary, this is some sort of farewell service of a religious nature held for the graduating seniors).  But it's after finals.  This would probably count as my last final, and therefore I wouldn't have to clear out until then, except for one small problem.
I'll have cleared out of the country a week before.  I'm going to Peru.

This presents a problem, which will hopefully be solved a lot of praying and emailing and maybe an auditing form (so I can take the class, but not for credit).  I really want to do both, because I'm not going to get another chance to hike Maccu Piccu (and if I do, it's not going to be when I'm a teenager), and singing is something that keeps me from going insane, even when the music is crazy (especially when the music is crazy).

I'll post updates when they come. I really want this to work out.

J-term break: the ire of coffee shops and waking up early

I'm back home for J-term break, and it feels sort of odd, if only because I have to try to start waking up earlier and I've been banned from watching TV all day. The college student in me is protesting wildly that this is not what needs to be done during any day that has no class. SLEEP IN! STAY UP LATE! WATCH A LOT OF DUMB PROGRAMS THAT I WOULD NEVER WATCH EXCEPT DURING A BREAK! That's what I normally do. It's what I did during winter break. It was great.
Now, however, I have to start getting back to a normal-semester sleep schedule, which involves actually getting out of bed before eight in the morning (I tried this morning, but I failed. My alarm went off during an interesting dream about swimming through outer space, so I turned it off and went back to bed. The dream was gone, though. It was very saddening). It also involves being productive for most of the day, and actually going over some old Greek notecards. I have yet to do the notecards - they scare me a little bit. It's a terrifying thought to go back to such a difficult language, but I'm going to do it. I mean, I already got the textbook, and I want to get some use out of it. I'd never know what I was doing if I was trying to translate it on my own.
Anyway, now that I have to actually start being productive, the lure of time off from classes is suddenly not as nice. I've gotten a bit bored of daytime TV. I've been out to exercise every day so far (and by exercise, I mean walking to coffee shops), but I'm done with walking to a Starbucks that's half an hour away. I mean, it's good for getting off your butt and to get something to eat, but I'm done with Starbucks for a while. I know the stereotypical writer-y thing to do is to go and write in a coffee shop, but my hometown only has one coffee shop that's not a Starbucks or a Dunkin Donuts. I have nothing against either of those, but it's getting monotonous to go to the same sort of shop to get the same sort of order again and again.

Writers in A-town: any suggestions?